Nevin's homer caps Padres' rally

SAN DIEGO -- Slugger Phil Nevin and slugger-unkind Petco Park
might never be the best of friends, but the Padres' first baseman
is no doubt willing to call a truce in their seasonlong contretemps
after Friday night's game.

Nevin struck what may prove to be a crucial blow in his team's
bid to remain in the pennant race. His two-out, three-run home run
in the seventh-inning capped an impressive rally and sent the
Padres to a 7-6 win over Colorado before 35,555.

Returning home from a 10-game road trip that began swimmingly
but ended in a damaging three-game sweep in St. Louis, the Padres
talked before the game about the urgency inherent in meaningful
September baseball, about the need to treat every contest as though
their season were riding on it. Then they hit the field and
promptly fell behind by five runs after four innings to the Rockies
and pitching nemesis Jason Jennings.

The Padres meant what they had said, however, and no one
translated words into action like Nevin. After a bases-clearing
double (aided by a Rockies error) off the bat of Mark Loretta in
the fifth brought the Padres within a run, Nevin hit his big
homer.

"It was real big; I'm not going to downplay it," Nevin said.
"This was a game we needed to have tonight. Hopefully, the way we
won will pole-vault us to bigger things."

Added Loretta, who posted his 60th multihit game of the season:
"To come back tonight was big for our psyche and momentum. It would
have been very easy after falling behind to say, 'Here comes
another one of our losing streaks.'"

By matching their biggest deficit erased this season and halting
a three-game slide, the Padres picked up precious ground in both
races, moving within six games of Los Angeles in the National
League West and 1 1/2 games of the idle Chicago Cubs for the wild
card.

Such an outcome appeared highly unlikely midway through Friday's
game.

Padres lefthander David Wells, who won two games while pitching
15 2/3 innings on the recent road trip, wasn't up to the task on
this night, allowing two runs in the first inning and two more in
the third on Vinny Castilla's first of two home runs. And the
Padres' chances of picking up Wells were dimmed considerably by the
presence of Jennings, who entered with a 2-0 record and microscopic
1.15 ERA at Petco Park.

The Padres had battered Jennings the last time they faced him,
racking up nine runs on 15 hits at Coors Field on July 20. This
time he started well -- through four innings he allowed only two
singles, one of them a bunt by Ryan Klesko.

The Padres' breath of life was supplied by just the person you
would expect.

With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, Loretta lined a
double to right-center field to score two (Kerry Robinson also came
around on a throwing error by second baseman Clint Barmes). Loretta
then brought the Padres within a run at 5-4 by scoring on Brian
Giles' RBI groundout.

Jennings, though, was still in line for his 12th win, and the
Rockies were seven outs from handing it to him when the Padres
mounted the decisive spurt in the seventh. Loretta started it with
a two-out single off reliever Scott Dohmann, Giles walked, and then
Nevin lofted a high 0-2 slider for a 421-foot homer into the
Padres' bullpen in left center. The second-longest shot hit by a
Padre at Petco also made Nevin the team's first hitter to crack 20
homers this year.

"That was some pent-up energy on his part," Loretta said of
Nevin, who has been oft-frustrated by the daunting dimensions of
the park. "He just about bruised my kidney slapping me on the
back."

Scott Linebrink (6-1) earned the victory with a scoreless
seventh, and closer Trevor Hoffman followed Akinori Otsuka to
record his 34th save.

Catcher Miguel Ojeda was replaced in the eighth inning, four
innings after slamming into the dugout railing while chasing a wild
throw. He will be evaluated today.